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tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  November 16, 2012 11:00am-12:00pm EST

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and knocking into things and everybody is going to be staring at them. those parents that didn't do it right to begin with are the ones that are going to wear themselves out by the time the child is five years old. if do you it early on, it gets easier later. >> thank you, dr. phil. carol costello. thank you for joining me today. "cnn newsroom" continues with ashleigh banfield. hello, everyone. i am ashleigh banfield. it is 11:00 on the east coast and 8:00 on the west coast and it is 6 p.m. in jerusalem where air raid sirens have been blaring within the past hour. jerusalem, not tel aviv. authorities are reporting that hamas rockets hit outside of that city. this is huge. it is the first time since 1970 that rockets have been fired at jerusalem. this new escalation, that's according to the newspaper in israel, but this new escalation
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comes after a failed cease-fire between the israelis and the palestinians earlier today. israel had said that it held off the bombing for two hours because egypt's prime minister was inside gaza meeting with hamas leaders and the palestinians for their part are denying that. they're disputing it. this week's fighting we know this has left more than 200 people injured. three israeli soldiers are dead, there are reports of civilian israelis dead as well and 24 palestinians killed in gaza and israel is amassing tanks near the border with gaza and called up 16,000 army reservists. let's get you straight to cnn fred plaiken live in jerusalem at this hour. this is extraordinary. what do we know? where did the rockets land near jerusalem and what is being said about this? >> ashleigh, you're right. it is extraordinary and very much out of the ordinary many in jerusalem. the air raid sirens went off a
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little less than an hour ago. we could hear them. you heard a thud later on. what we're hearing from the israeli military is the rocket or missile hit somewhere south of jerusalem. they're still looking for the impact sight and haven't found it yet and believe that it landed in an aunpopulated area, possibly a field and hamas, however, has already taken responsibility. they said that, yes, they did launch rockets or a rocket at jerusalem and i can tell you from the people that i have been speaking to on the ground here, they were absolutely terrified of what's going on. as you said, this is something so uncommon here in the city, the last time this place was hit by rockets was in the 1970s and there was rocket alarms here or air radia larms in the 1990 gulf war but the people are not used to it. if you look at the people around gaza and the israeli cities there they have in a common place and the people here i would say somewhat in a mode of panic and now as i said the rocket appears to have hit an empty field and certainly what we can say is that it appears as
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though both sides in this conflict are upping the ante and not taking their foot off the gas. this conflict is escalating rather than deescalating >> i want to correct. i said there were three israeli soldiers killed. they apparently were injured and not killed. do you have any updates on the numbers who have been killed or injured in just the last few days of fighting? >> we have 24 palestinians killed including several children and elderly woman and that of course is inside the gaza strip and also as you said more than 200 people were wounded in those on going air raids. i can tell you i spent last night on the border and you could see it was lit up the entire night. as far as the israeli side is concerned, you're right, it is three soldiers wound when had a rocket struck the vehicle and three people killed yesterday who were inside an apartment house when a rocket struck the apartment house and again it appears as though both sides are firing at each other and not
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non-stop today there was that little cease-fire that was going on when the egyptian prime minister visited gaza. however, that did not hold. and now things are back to the way they were and one of the interesting developments is also the fact that you have the ground troops amassing around gaza that could lead to an israeli ground offensive. >> thank you. also, stay safe. soon on this program we're going to be able to have a conversation with the mayor of jerusalem. we're working that interview out for you live. the extraordinary development here rockets fired at jerusalem. it is not the capital but it is the disputed center of the universe so to speak when it comes to israel and for the first time since the 1970s rockets fired at that major city just two hours drive away from tel aviv where they have been enduring several days now of this and the air raid sirens are going off in both of these cities. this continues. we'll stay on it throughout this entire hour. also, i have to get you to
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washington. we have so much news breaking. this is what we call in the news game the stakeout. take a look at four pictures live cameras so near and yet so far from major news that is basically in the cooker, steps away behind closed doors david petraeus is giving testimony to the senate intelligence committee and at the same time at the white house president obama's closed door fiscal cliff talks with leaders of congress is on going. they all have to come out sometime. when they do, we are set with open mics ready to hear what they have to say about the incredibly important and top secret meetings. we think as one might inspect of a military leader turned spy chief general petraeus rnz a thing or two about traveling under the radar and i have to clarify the back-to-back testimony of both the house and the senate is not necessarily about the affair that he has admitted to or the fallout from this affair, but it
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is more about the attack on the u.s. out post in benghazi, libya. that attack that killed our ambassador and three other americans on september 11th. this year's september 11th. dana bash is live now from capitol hill. barbara starr is live at the piers morgan and, dana, i want to begin with you. we heard from one of the lawmakers in the house committee at one of those stakeouts when the first round of questioning began and the suggestion was that it was tough. can you enlighten us? >> that's right. we were told by democrats and republicans coming out and of course this is a classified briefing so there is only so much they can say, but they it talking and they talked about the fact that, yes, there were tough questions asked of david petraeus and the most important question or most important issue and barbara starr reported this yesterday going in that a source close to petraeus was saying that he really wanted to try to clear up the fact that he was here and he, petraeus was here, in the days after the attack and
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apparently according to some lawmakers seemed to suggest much more that it was the result of a demonstration after this anti-muslim video ran in the middle east and he wanted to clear up the fact that, no, it is not the only thing there was, there was another stream of intelligence that did mention the fact that there was an extremist element here and, so, that was what he went in with the goal of and listening to democrat and i can republican lawmakers coming out, boy did they get different impressions. listen to peter king first and the democratic vice chair of the committee. >> general petraeus' testimony was that from the start he told us this was a terrorist attack and terrorist involved from the start and i told him my questions had a very different recollection of that and 9 clear impression is the overwhelming amount of evidence it was arose out of a spontaneous
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demonstration and not a terrorist attack. >> it is all about your perception and the information that you received. when i was there and chairman was in another function, my recollections is that we feflt it was as a result of a pro test and that was the beginning. the first thing you hear is maybe what you retain, but he also said that in the group there were extremists and some al qaeda affiliates, and that was said that in the very beginning. >> so what you see i think seems to depend on where you stand on the political spectrum, ashleigh. no question. one thing i want to mention is the controversy also is over the talking points that ambassador susan rice used. >> let me interrupt you for just a moment. john mccain is just emerged from the senate intelligence committee meeting. let's listen to what he has to say. >> ability to make judgments about what is clearly a failure
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of intelligence, and described the actions and that of his agency and interaction with other agencies and i appreciate his service and his candor. >> senator, senator. >> so as the senator walks away from the reporters who are amassed, he is with the armed services committee, so unlikely that he is has been able to be privy to the closed door meeting of the senate intelligence committee. i don't know, dana, can you shed light on that? i didn't get to hear what he said unfortunately. >> yes. he actually has been in the intelligence committee meetings, you're right. he is not a member officially of the intelligence committee any more and used to be and so there are privileges for people like him with his kind of seniority. they get to sit in on these intelligence meetings and he has been going to most if not all of these important meetings and including the one yesterday and i think the gist of what he was saying was not much because it was a classified briefing, but
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he said that he was candid in his assessment of what he knows now versus what he initially knew in the days following the attack. remember, part of the reason why these lawmakers wanted to hear from david petraeus is because he only came to congress once to brief them. after that, he took a trip to libya. so he didn't have a chance to give them his trip report which is really crucial as one senator told me, a big stone left unturned. >> and got another question i need to ask, the star person in this entire day, whether it is the senate or the house intelligence committee hearings is general petraeus. normally we get some kind of view of people walking into these meetings, walking out of these meetings, whether they stop for the cameras or not is up it them. today however nothing. we never saw him anywhere. that is unusual. >> it is unusual. not for lack of trying, i can tell you that, ashleigh. at the beginning you showed the
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various cameras around and that's not the half of it. there are cameras all over the capitol complex, not just ours, our competitors as well trying to get a picture of david petraeus. we're still trying. we believe he is still sort of down the hall behind me on the senate 150id. we have a member of the armed services committee coming up so i should toss it back to you. let me tell you something fast. the interesting thing is that david petraeus did at the beginning address the fact that he had to resign because of an affair and the house briefing but he made clear that had nothing to do with the benghazi issue at all. they were completely separate and it was the only time mentioned. >> i am going to let you listen in and if you could just give us a summary of the briefing going on behind you, dana. thank you. this is a very live and rolling show. let me go to barbara starr at the pentagon now.
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the group had fighters at the consulate compound that night and he gets a lot of intelligence the video, the anti-islamic video may have sparked some of the activity outside the consulate, but that is all disproved we're told and the problem is they aren't able to really disprove or toss out the notion that the video had a lot to do with it into well after he briefed congress on september 14th well after u.n. ambassador susan rice made her comment. there was a lot of murkiness and a moving train if you will. >> thank you. also something to consider as well, to that end we'll speak with general spider marks later on in the program to see what his take is to piece together information when you do have
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apply online or at a bank of america near you. very busy day. especially for friday in washington, d.c. at the white house. a six-week push to beat the january 1st deadline starts now. officially really. president obama and top congressional leaders all meeting this morning, and their mission to negotiate this fiscal cliff. if no deal is reached, $500 billion in tax increases and spending cuts take effect immediately. upon the new year. listen to what the president had to say a short time ago. >> i think we're all aware we have some urgent business to do. we have to make sure taxes don't go up on middle class families, that our economy remains strong and we're creating jobs and
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that's an agenda that democrats and republicans and independents, people all across the country share. our challenge is to make sure we are able to cooperate together, work together, find some common ground and make tough compromises and build consensus to do the people's business. >> let's take you live back to the senate intelligence committee microphone. this is senator conrad from north dakota, the democrat on the committee. let's listen to what he has to say. >> what is very clear is that ambassador rice used the talking points that intelligence committee had all signed off on. that is very, very clear. she used the unclassified talking points that were signed off on by the entire intelligence community, so criticisms of her are completely
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unwarranted. that is very clear. >> are you able to say whether the cia thought it was a terrorist act within the first 24 hours and did it include al qaeda? >> i don't think i should respond to that question because of the questions of classification. again, what is very clear is ambassador rice used the unclassified talking points, the unclassified talking points that the entire intelligence community had signed off on. so she did completely the appropriate thing. now, there are other things that are classified. that's a totally different subject. i can't talk about that. >> general petraeus contradicted anything that you heard yesterday? >> look, general petraeus as
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director of the cia has been completely consistent. >> as senator conrad makes his way away from the reporters and a bit like whiplash today. back to the benghazi hearings and the senate intelligence committee and he said and he reiterated it very clearly twice almost as though it was a prepared statement, that ambassador susan rice used talking points, unclassified, he clarified, unclassified talking points signed off on by the intelligence committee. then he went on to say there are other things that are classified that he could not discuss. this is critical. there is so much criticism of ambassador susan rice going on in the sunday morning talk show circuit after this september 11th attack on benghazi and suggesting this was a spontaneous attack as a result
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of offensive muslim movie and anti-islam movie that clearly now has not become the narrative and this is the reaction from senator conrad from north dakota having just emerged from a closed door senate intelligence committee with general petraeus. he added general petraeus, the director of the cia was i think he said completely truthful. i will have to go back to the transcript on that one. busy. i want to go back to the white house now. we'll hop scotch all around washington where jill dougherty is standing by. take me through what we can expect from the big six, the leaders of the house, the leaders of the senate, joe biden, and the president and all getting together to try to stop a crisis, a financial crisis in the way of the fiscal cliff. where do we stand and what's today going to accomplish that we haven't been able to accomplish up to now? >> well, right now you can't really say what they will accomplish because right now we're hearing what we have heard all along, and you peninsula i had that piece of tape from the
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president pretty much what he said all along about protecting middle class americans. i think where you're seeing a little shift on the republican side talking about revenue -- well, they're saying they're open to increasing revenue. they're not talking about taxes. they're talking about tax rates. if you translate all of that, it means that they believe that, number one, they have to get more money in. how do you do that? they don't want to raise tax rates. they do say they would be open to kind of what you heard during the campaign. in fact, closing loopholes, closing deductions, but they are open to that part of the equation, getting more money in. then on the democratic side, of course, you have that difficulty of how do you cut back on some of the entitlements when some of the democrats don't want that to happen? the president says he is open to it. again, how? that's the fine print is what we
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need. >> jill dougherty live for us at the white house. thank you so much. keep an eye on that for us. i know there will be additional talking points likely today. we do have that stakeout position ready to go with what we like to call the hot mic. we'll come right back. capella university understands businesses are trying to come back from rough economic times. employees are being forced to do more with less. and the need for capable leaders is greater than ever. when you see these problems do you take a step back,
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stunning news as air raid sirens blare in jerusalem within the last hour. israel is reporting that hamas rockets are hitting outside of that city, jerusalem. israel has been amassing tanks near the border with gaza and has called up 16,000 army reservists but don't forget jerusalem is near the west bank. it actually is part of the west bank, part of jerusalem in the west bank, so now this is without question spreading and those rockets represent the first time since 1970 that rockets have been fired at
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jerusalem and with the pounding of gaza rockets targeting tel aviv and now jerusalem is there any way through all of this without an all-out war. martin is an expert on arab and israeli relations because he is the former u.s. ambassador to israel and joins me live via skype from au you about dhabi. >> i just want to get your reaction it the news within the past hour of the rockets, the hamas rockets being fired at jerusalem and landing nearby. >> it is still the provocation and designed to i think get israel to react. i suspect at the moment that hamas would actually like the israelis to bring it on and go in on the ground and in a way that they think they can benefit from particularly in terms of international condemnation. the rockets on jerusalem is also a way of symbolically sending a message to other palestinians in
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the west bank and in the arab world that they're somehow working to liberate jerusalem although it is hard to imagine how a rocket falling there would do that. i think hamas calculated they benefit from escalation which is not what the israelis imagined at all. >> and mr. ambassador, give us a bit of a geography lesson in terms of gaza being quite a distance away from jerusalem and there by it would stand to reason they did not come from gaza but under the west bank which is under different leadership. am i mistaken in this assessment. >> i think so. >> does this mean there is a unification of sorts now in this all-out effort between the leadership in west bank and the leadership in gaza. >> i think you're mistaken. i do not believe those rockets came from the west bank. they can reach jerusalem from gaza. if they can reach tel aviv they can reach jerusalem. >> okay. >> i would be very surprised
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coming from the west bank. >> thank you very much. i appreciate that, that clarification. so if you could explain for me at this point when you see the amassing of these troops,s the calling out of the reservists and the tanks that are headed to the border between gaza and israel, is it likely that there is going to be this full scale ground war because the only suggestion we had that a trigger would be was increasing rocket attacks and we just saw that. >> yeah. as i say, i think that at this point it is actually doing something that we would regard as counter intuitive but i suspect they actually want to provoke a ground war. they want israel to come in because that will inevitably involve an increase in civilian casualties in gaza as a result of the israeli operations and i suspect that hamas thinks they benefit more from that and by
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showing that they're resisting israel then they do from a group to a cease-fire on the terms that the israelis would insist upon >> and now of course the neighbors are all in such a different state since the last time there was this kind of escalation, so there is so many more questions i have, ambassador, and i have to cut it short there because we have a number of different interviews set up and a lot of news breaking here on our shores as well. thank you, sir. do appreciate your time and hope to speak with you again soon. you don't want to miss this. the israel's ambassador to the united nations was with us and we're also going to effort the mayor of jerusalem. we're trying to line up that interview for you as well and we do have a lot more not only in this story but on our fiscal cliff and on our issues with benghazi and a lot more in a moment. atient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said,
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the battle raging in gaza just reached outside of gaza and made its way to jerusalem. in the last hour rockets fired by hamas landed to the south of that city and that would represent the first time since 1970 that rockets have been fired upon that city. part of that city actually lies in the west bank as well and it is quite some distance away from gaza and this as tanks and soldiers and reservists are inlooing up along the border and there is a threat of all out ground war if the escalation and rocket attacks continue. i am lucky to be joined on the telephone by the mayor of jerusalem. mr. mayor, can you hear me? >> hi, ashleigh. >> could you give me the latest on the developments that these rockets and how many have landed if the barrage continues or if it was just this one incident? >> well, we're very alert. the rockets are all around gaza, from gaza, and indiscriminate ways to major cities in the
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country in tel aviv and south of jerusalem. we have an issue with an enemy that wants to destroy israel, and unfortunately they have no ethics, no values, and they would shoot rockets and they continue shooting rockets indiscriminately and israel has had enough of this and the government said enough is enough and we're going after the people in charge. >> mr. mayor, can you tell me where the rockets landed, if they have affected any damage or any injuries? >> no, we usually don't say where exactly they land. no damage made, and i think that we're of course in jerusalem and ready for it and using all the emergency rooms and making sure that people remind themselves and we remind them what people have to do in case of an emergency. >> the the people of jerusalem are not as use the to this as people in tel aviv are. when they go off in tel aviv it is very familiar. when the air raid sirens go off
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in your city, what is happening? what are people saying? are they aware of what's going on? >> yes, they are, and basically it is very simple rules. have you to find a place and use your common sense and find a place protected from rockets, and people everywhere in the city and all over the country are very much aware of what has to do in case they hear the sirens go off and i have to admit that the major challenge we all have and israel is now united and to go after the people in charge and go after the warehouses and eliminate the ability to try and terrorize israel. >> can i ask if you have had a chance at this point to speak with prime minister benjamin netanyahu since the rockets fell? >> no. he has a job to do. we trust him to do the right job. i think the israeli army has
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demonstrated that rather than indiscriminate firings on civilians and my i very targetee and the message that we have to the people using force against israel that we will hunt you down. we will not enable you to try to terrorize our cities. you know, ashleigh, imagine for a second what the u.s. of a would do if florida started getting rockets from cuba or anywhere else. can you imagine a day after day after day what would the u.s. government do? what would the people of america expect from their government to do if indiscriminate fire lands in cities in the united states? i assume i know what the public in the united states would request or demand from its government. it is absurd that the world is enabling unfortunately some of
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the world enabling indiscriminate fire at cities and people and by the way the rockets fall on kindergartens, on hotels, on civilian houses. >> right. mr. mayor, i appreciate you taking the time, and i wish you the best for the people in your city tonight, and i hope for the sake of everyone inside those borders whether they're in gaza or the west bangor israel proper, that you all come to some kind of resolution and the bloodshed stops. thanks for joining us, mr. mayor. that is the mayor of jerusalem joining us. i want to take you to other breaking news, and that is in the gulf. our breaking news from the gulf of mexico if you can believe it now, there is apparently an oil rig that is on fire in the gulf of mexico at this time and there are reports coming out that there could be death and injury. a u.s. coast guard is telling cnn the rig is owned by black elk oil, that it is on fire, and that it is off the coast of
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grand aisle, louisiana and that it exploded earlier on today. ryan tippets is a petty officer with the coast guard and joins me live on the phone. can you hear me? >> yes, ma'am. >> can you give me the latest that you have on the situation that's developing in the gulf with this rig? >> okay. our initial reports are that they a rig exploded approximately 20 nautical miles southeast of grand isle, louisiana, four people being commercially medevaced and two people missing and possibly overboard. several coast guard assets are en route to assist the situation. >> this is currently burning. is the fire being fought at this point? >> i can't confirm on the status of the fire. >> but at this point do you know if there is oil spilling into the gulf?
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>> we haven't received any reports of any kind of oil being released into the water. >> that doesn't tell me whether that's something that can be known at this time if you said there are vessels, coast guard vessels en route. is there even an assessment made whether there is a spill? >> right. i can't tell you for sure right now. there if there has been any assessments. the coast guard assets are en route and they're going to investigate the same and assist in any way they can. >> we were just looking at a photograph from our affiliate wvue of what it currently looks like and the smoke. have you had an assessment of any kind? helicopters or live transmissions of images? do you know the scope of this fire because from this purview it looks fairly big. >> we haven't seen any image from the fire yet. we have coast guard helicopters en route to assess the area. >> and when you said two are
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missing at this point, is there any inclination that they may be found? are there efforts right now in the water nearby? what are the efforts to find the two missing at this time? >> right. there are several commercial vessels on scene and also coast guard vessels are en route to assist in the search of the missing personnel. >> and what kind of rescue teams are on board the vessels? >> there is a coast guard assets have crews trained in search and rescue situations. >> how many people were on this rig, do you know? >> i know six for sure. i don't have an exact number of how many people on board. >> six people that you know of but we don't know at this point the whereabouts of two. sir, thank you so much. i appreciate your time with us. we're going to continue to follow this live as the developments come in. i also want to take you back to the live camera positions.
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this is outside of the white house and john boehner taking the microphone and let's listen in. >> by significant spending cuts. and while we're going to continue to have revenue on the table, it is going to be incumbent for my colleagues to show the american people that we're serious about cutting spending and solving our fiscal dilemma. i believe that we can do this and avert the fiscal cliff that right in front of us today. >> this isn't the first time we have dealt with these issues. we feel we understand what the problem is. we felt very -- i feel very good about what we were able to talk about in there. we have a cornerstones of being able to work something out. we're both going to have to give up some of the things that we know are a problem. and so it is like when we arrive at a point where we all know something has to be done, there is no more let's do it some
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other time or we're going to do it now and i think there is we feel very comfortable with each other and this isn't something we're going to wait until the last day of december to get it done. we have a plan. we're going to move forward on it. we're going to work during the thanksgiving recess and we're going to meet with the president when we come back the first week, at least that's as i understand it. i think it was a very constructive meeting and i feel very good about what we were able to talk about. mitch. >> thank you. >> it was a very constructive meeting. we had a recognition that every person in america knows that we must reach agreement. we had the speaker spoke about a framework going into next year. i was focusing on how we send a message of confidence to consumers, to the markets, in the short run, too. that is to say that we should
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have a goal in terms of how much deficit reduction. we should have a deadline before christmas. we should show some milestones of success so that confidence can build as we reach our solution. if we do not reach agreement, not only will we miss the opportunity for doing something good for our economy and lifting the spirits and the confidence in our country, we he will have an economic downturn that must be avoided. we understand our responsibility there. we understand that it has to be about cuts. it has to be about revenue. it has to be about growth. it has to be about the future. as we cut investments and as we talk about revenue, we have to do so in a way that promotes growth and supports the future. it was good. i feel confident that a solution may be in sight.
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mitch. >> i can only echo the observations of the others that it was a constructive meeting and we all understand where we are. i can say on the part of my members that we fully understand that you can't save the country until you have entitlement programs that fit the demographics of the changing america and the coming years and we're prepared to put revenue on the table, provided we fix the real problem, even though most of my members i think without exception believe we're in the dilemma we're in not because we tax too little but because we spend too much. another issue, i haven't had a chance to talk to the president yesterday about his trip to burma, a country i have had a longstanding interest in over the last 20 years and i want to commend him for going. i think it is an important step for him to take. >> thanks, everybody. >> speaker -- >> okay. there you have it. boy, was it ever good we had the
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mics ready to go. wow, has this ever been a busy hour. i write fast, but not fast enough. i missed some of the comments that john boehner made. let me give you a quick summary of the highlights here, and let's call them highlights because finally kumbaya. hope it lasts. the senate majority leader harry reid suggested both of us, we're both going to have to give up what we want and call this the cornerstone of working something out. that sounds good. then nancy pelosi, the house minority leader, saying that this has to be about cuts. this has to be about revenue. this has to be about growth and that she is confident a solution is in sight. sounds good, too. and then the house minority leader or rather the minority leader mitch mcconnell also suggesting that this was a constructive meeting and that we are prepared to put revenue on the table. they just emerged from the meeting. looked like they were going right back in. maybe they were going to have lunch. i don't know. they sure deserve it if they're able to come to rhetoric like
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that any any case. take to you break for a moment and hopefully i can scramble up wolf blitzer. given the fact we're so busy with breaking news he is probably busy as well. [ knock on door ]
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cool. you found it. wow. nice place. yeah. [ chuckles ] the family thinks i'm out shipping these. smooth move. you used priority mail flat rate boxes. if it fits, it ships for a low, flat rate. paid for postage online and arranged a free pickup. and i'm gonna track them online, too. nice. between those boxes and this place, i'm totally staying sane this year. do i smell snickerdoodles? maybe. [ timer dings ] got to go. priority mail flat rate boxes. online pricing starts at $5.15. only from the postal service.
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a thunderous night of bombs and rockets lighting up the sky. israel into gaza, and now jerusalem embroiled in a dangerous escalation of violence rib that is threatening to explode into an all-out ground war as rockets land near jerusalem and troops amass near the border with gaza, and make no mistake, there is a lot at stake for the united states as well. ambassador to the united nations is here to talk about this impending crisis. mr. ambassador, thank you for taking the time to see us today. >> thank you for having me. >> i want to get your initial reaction to this news in the last hour of these missiles landing near jerusalem for the first time since 1970. >> well, it shows you what we
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are up against. >> hanl yas is indiscriminate atley throwing -- it's basically committing a double war crime. it takes and shoots from neighborhoods into israeli cities from schools into israeli schools, and we will do everything we have to do in order to protect our civilians. we cannot play russian roulette with the lives of our citizens. >> i'm sure you have heard the arguments for decades on the other side. these strikes that are happening in gaza, while it is said that they are surgical we see the evidence of children bleeding, of mothers that are dying as well. how surgical can they be? some say it's a sledgehammer approach to the problem that you are facing when there is this kind of collateral damage. >> well, first of all, it's -- secondly, one has to remember that hamas is using highly
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civilian population areas in order to shoot at israel. what did we try? we withdrew out of gauze in order for them to -- >> americans also engage in war zones that are in populated plays as well. >> it can't go on like this. >> the merl infrastructure of hamas, we are going after what hamas -- look at the amazing -- missiles that they have. 500 missiles just today. jerusalem, tel aviv. instead of them allocating resources to the welfare of the people they have put money and changed gaza into a launching pad against israel, a terrorist hub where all global terrorism comes over and a immune ix dump to weapons coming from all over
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the world. no government, no nation can stand with something like that taking place against its citizens. >> what happens next? if this is going to be the -- listen, what we have been told is that the trigger for this ground assault and the breach of the gaza border would be increased missile attacks, and i just reported it. these attacks have now taken a new perspective near jerusalem. is that the trigger, and if that trigger has been pulled, what's happening next? what is this going to look like, and how far is this going to go? >> i tell you, it's very simple. if it's going to be quiet in israel, it's iffing to be quiet in gaza. hamas are the enemies of peace. not just towards israel. they are the enemies of peace also on the palestinian side and they create regional instability. hamas -- >> it's -- when you talk to palestinians, they say the israelis are the enemies of peace. everyone wants peace. everyone has children. they want piece past on their terms, and there's a lot of -- >> it's very simple. missiles are falling --
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>> it's not very simple. >> it's not very simple, but missiles are falling on jerusalem and tel aviv. just think if missiles would be falling m middle of manhattan, london, or paris. >> and if manhattan, london, and paris were occupied and didn't have their own state, their own recognition. they would feel as they they had to fight too. >> no country no, nation, no deposit can with instanted that. we are doing everything we can. >> we saw the targeted killing of the -- that has led to what we're seeing now. are there other military leaders? are there other political leaders of hamas that are now in the crosshairs of the idf? >> i would first like to say that mr. jabri is not exactly
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mama theresa. the guy is a mass murderer. >> he is one of the military leaders. >> murdered women and children. >> are there others? >> people like that, when they are -- the word is a better and safer place without those people. we have better chances without people like that -- >> are there others who are being targeted as well, other leaders? >> israel will do whatever it takes to make sure that israeli civilians are not in harm's way through people whose only issue -- >> does that mean the leadership? does that mean additional targeted leadership? >> i'm not going to get into military operations, but i can tell you that we'll do anything it takes to protect our citizens from this indiscriminate rocket attack, and i have to say when i see jerusalem, tel aviv, and when i talk to my family, as an israeli, i really feel that enough is enough. we have to set a line m sand and
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say enough is enough. we will do anything it takes to protect our citizens. >> i hope that both sides in this combat can reach some kind of resolution soon, and my best to not only your side, but the palestinians as well. ambassador, thank you for being with us today, and god smeed. back after this. n moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help. with the experience and service to keep things rolling. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. oh, let me guess --ou see this? more washington gridlock. no, it's worse -- look, our taxes are about to go up. not the taxes on our dividends though, right? that's a big part of our retirement. oh, no, it's dividends, too. the rate on our dividends would more than double. but we depend on our dividends to help pay our bills.
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i want to give you an update to the fire that we've been telling you about. one of the breaking stories this hour. a rig that's just breaking off the coast of louisiana and the gulf of mexico. in the interview we heard just earlier on in this program we learned that there are two people missing. four people who were being medevaced. the knowledge of the coast guard officer that i spoke with was that there may have only been six people on the platform, but there is still a lot to assess with this coast guard fire. it's about 20 in and out cal miles southeast of grand isle, louisiana, and at this point coast guard vessels

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